Archive for September 2013

A newish holiday, Blasphemy Day was started in 2009 by the secularist organization “Center for Inquiry,” which was established by Paul Kurtz. Kurtz was “the father of secular humanism” and the founder of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry. Blasphemy Day was set up, in part, to protest the notion that there are still blasphemy laws in many of the worlds nations, including the UK, the EU, and six of the United States (really, Massachusetts?).

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Personally, my entire spiritual foundation is based on the veneration of Superman. April 18 is my holy day, celebrating the publication of Action Comics #1, wherein the revelation of the savior was revealed. This was when the good news was released to an anxious nation that Jor El had sent his only begotten son to live amongst, morally instruct, and catechize us. For me, blasphemy is the ridiculous notion that this is a fictional story. Clearly, we live in a state of sin which precludes the man of steel from revealing himself to us, as evinced by the popularity of the heretics over at Marvel and their collusion with the evils of the Floridian Disney empire.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The traditional sort of blasphemy which would have gotten you into a lot of trouble until quite recently is something which one observes on a regular basis, around the Newtown Pentacle. Occult artifacts and the leave behinds of eldritch rites are not hard to find in area cemeteries, for instance. Go to City Hall over in the Shining City and proclaim any objection to policies offered, and you will find yourself accused of blaspheming against logic and proportion, and branded with a scarlet letter marking an enemy of the state.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the replica ship Halve Maen, or Half Moon, was spotted while it was plying the harbor just off the coast of Breuckelen. Back during the days of the Dutch decadence, this sort of thing would have been a fairly common sight, just like public floggings.

Another replica of the Halve Maen (officially Anglicized as Half Moon) was constructed in Albany, New York in 1989 by the New Netherland Museum. The museum contracted with Nicholas S. Benton to design and build the replica. Mr. Benton, a master ship-rigger and shipwright, was president of the Rigging Gang of Middletown, Rhode Island, which specialized in colonial ship restoration and design. To prepare for building the Half Moon, a $1 million project, he visited maritime museums in the Netherlands and the United States. After his death while assisting with the rigging of another vessel, the construction of the Half Moon was completed by the New Netherland Museum. The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of the Halve Maen’s voyage. For the anniversary, the crown prince of the Netherlands and his wife were on board, as well as students from a Dutch school. This anniversary was marked in September 2009 with festivals, music, sailing ships parading around New York Harbor.

The chap who is reprinting the Fireboxes of Woodside and Astoria seems to have struck again. This garish representation alongside St. Michael’s cemetery may not be wearing the uniform of the day, nor is outfitted according to regulation, but it still stands tall should menace or bad fortune cross its path.

For the next few days, it’s going to be a single image and a short but pithy comment from a humble narrator at this, your Newtown Pentacle. I need to take a little break, and gear up a major series of posts which will be coming your way very soon. The big Newtown Creek boat tour on Saturday appears to be completely sold out, by the way.

Upcoming Tours

Saturday- September 28, 2013Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.

Once upon a time, this charming section of Manhattan was home to cattle yards, rendering plants, and an enormous industrial sector which ran on coal. It was described as smokey, stinky, and not very pleasant by the Knickerbockracy. By the time of the Civil War, that had all changed, and this area which came to be called Union Square had begun to gentrify. Shedding itself of dirty or noisome industry is something the folks over in the City have absolutely excelled at over the years. These days, the place drowns in sentiment, seems fairly underutilized, and would benefit from some of the thinking and urban planning which guides the burgeoning shorelines of the East River in Brooklyn and Queens. Have you noticed that there are few buildings around Union Square which are under 20 stories?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Obligation carried one to the Shining City again just last week, for a lunch meeting this time, and I spied this crew of fellows tearing up a substantial chunk of 18th street. They seemed to be having a great time, using esoteric equipment and enjoying a ribald orgy of demolition. When I was a younger and less humble narrator, around the age of 5, my ambition was to drive a bull dozer. It is good to see that, for some, the dreams of childhood did not suffer the brutal euthanasia which mine have. The City people did not seem to notice the crew, presumptively this scene was just another obstacle for them which impeded rushing about and spending. It’s enough to drive one into the arms of a mixologist.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Profoundly unpopular, physically repulsive and societally unacceptable, one such as myself desires nothing more than to be included in things. How one wishes that parties such as the one witnessed in today’s post were the sort of thing for which an invitation might be offered. This looks like so much fun, tearing into the concretized firmament with powerful engines of modern design. Long have I been curious about what might lie below, but such obsessions are denied me, and one can only photograph that which occurs in a brightly lit world illumined by the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, here in the Shining City.

Upcoming Tours

Saturday- September 28, 2013Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.

Finally, the swelter and perspiration choked season of summer has ended, as signaled by the appearance of the eye of Hecate in the eastern sky. One such as myself normally enjoys the summer, but the season just passed in 2013 bore more than a passing verisimilitude to tropical climes, weather which produced naught but dripping perspiration and dangerous levels of ennui. The filthy black raincoat has left the closet and hangs upon a hook awaiting a return to duty and its winter campaign. Finally, it is spooky time once again, in the Newtown Pentacle.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Diana is best appreciated when she hangs over the water, say I, lending her bluish glowings to the inky waves of NY Harbor. That glow is the reflected magnificence of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, of course, which travels through weird wavelengths on its journey to the water. My little dog Zuzu is often in an odd psychological state during this time of the month. The moon provides a psychological menses for the canine race, during which they are prone to nervous barking and short tempers. Perhaps the keen sensory prowess for which Zuzu’s kind are renowned are cogent enough to realize that which we can or choose not to witness, and that the dogs know something about the planetoid which we dross primates cannot discern.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Selene herself appeared before me recently, her position in the sky during the autumn months is complimentary to the position of Newtown Pentacle HQ upon the earth, and one decided to break out the whole kit and kaboodle to capture her likeness. Using one of my worst (albeit “longest”) lenses, whose already spotty resolution was further degraded by the use of a “teleconverter”, I managed to pull the shot above off somehow. This was a tripod shot, which is a necessity when attempting anything involving the night sky with a somewhat telescopic lens attached. I set the camera to f18, iso 100, and left the shutter open for nearly a full second. The moon is nearly as bright as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, despite appearances to the human eye, and it is quite a challenge to capture in a fashion acceptable for one such as myself.

Upcoming Tours

Saturday- September 28, 2013Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.